asw,
barring a major crash on the MA servers I don't think I have seen more that eighty players on ever and that was back in AH1.
the change from I toII caused many players with marginal systems to leave. since AHII we have never seen the level of involvement we were accustomed to seeing prior to the change.
in my experience when we do have that many players on it is absolute bedlam, reminiscent of the monkeys in the kitchen in the movie "Jumanji" and 200 makes a typed exchange between slash27 and I seem like a polite garden party exchange of pleasantries.
I think that be it's very premis the AvA will have limited appeal and that's the way of it.
contrary to what humble opines I believe that the squads like JG3, VF27, 880, 13th sentai, 332nd and others now forgotten made the old CT the great place for squad competition. last night JG54 vs 80th headhunters had some nice fights without a single cross exchange on 200 from either side inspite of some vultching and HO'n occurring.
naturally rivalries between the squads often spilled over onto the text buffer and subsequently the BBS.
as in any competetive endeavor sometimes tempers flair and elbows are thrown that is the nature of male competition and as in any other event of this type once the competition is over usually the competitors can have a beer and be friendly. that final element is what is missing to complete the cycle in here and possibly why some of these seething exchanges upset some of the weaker players.
the point is that there is no one event or occurrance, no one personality or group of players that has caused the AvA to remain relatively empty the truth is that it's a combination of many factors many of which are simply completely out anyone's control.
there are some elements that are within our control and one of those is 200. we all know who responds when buttons are pushed. we can all name those players. soon there will be new players who will react in similar fashion as there have been some notables in the past.
personally as I have had to quit drinking gobs of beer daily I tend to be far less bellicose so if you see any difference in me that would be it. no beer = mellower storch. however the innate and just below the surface aggression that is me is there, it's always there and will be until my soul departs from the flesh.
with players such as myself and others who know who they are but will remain unnamed by me it's simply better to not engage them when they shoot you down or whatever. I promise you this if you leave me alone nine times out of ten I will leave you alone.
or not but remember it takes a minimum of two to argue.
